Questioning Gun Storage After 4-Year-Old Arkansas Boy Shoots Himself

Posted by Reed on May 30, 2018

Here at American concealed we stay on top of gun news. The hardest articles to read are the ones about kids accidentally hurting themselves. I can tell you from having read gun news for years now that almost every time, literally, the kid gets the gun because of some adult’s stupidity. this just isn’t acceptable for a responsible gun owning community. Here’s an example that really riled me.

A Warren, Arkansas, boy was riding in the backseat of a car driven by his mother. The mother parked the car on a driveway with an incline. When she did so, a purse fell from the center console onto the back floor. Another smaller purse containing a gun fell out of the first purse. The mother got out of the car, leaving the gun in the car. The gun was within reach of this young boy, and he shot himself in the face.

I’m not really a fan of purse carry for some reason like this. It’s easy to leave a purse behind somewhere, like on the back of a restaurant chair. Or on the bus, or wherever you are. It’s also too easy for someone to steal a purse by snatching it as they walk by. If you’re going to carry this way, your purse or backpack should NEVER be out of your direct control.

Luckily, the boy is expected to recover and no charges are to be filed against the mother, because police believe this to be a tragic accident and not negligence. But we can’t help but think that when there’s guns and kids, particularly toddlers, extra care must be taken to safely store your gun, moreso than what was done in this case. In Arkansas, though, there are no laws against storing a gun in a vehicle, so the mother apparently didn’t break any laws by carrying her weapon this way. but more common sense should have been used.